The message from Syrians is ‘unity, hope and humanity’

Mohammed Alsaleh’s mind exploded with competing emotions when he learned that a former Syrian refugee had been charged in the death of 13-year-old Marrisa Shen of Burnaby.

Relieved that an arrest was made for a terrible crime, the one-time Syrian dissident was soon “boiling with rage and shock and sadness” and later succumbed to a panic attack.

“I was happy at first when I heard they arrested somebody,” said Alsaleh, who was given political asylum here four years ago. “But I realized the accused is a former Syrian refugee and I was so shocked.”

Ibrahim Ali was arrested last Friday and later charged with killing Shen. He will appear in Provincial Court in Vancouver Friday morning.

Ali has been in Canada just 17 months, arriving in March, 2017 with the joint sponsorship of a group of families on Bowen Island and the St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church. Shen was killed four months later, around July 18, 2017.

Alsaleh took the lead in drafting a response to the crime and the arrest.

“I realized that this news had become national, so I started calling all my Syrian friends across Canada to put together a statement of sup- port for the Shen family and condemn the crime,” he said. “We think there should be an organized response from the community to such a horrible and shocking incident.”

The statement is signed by 19 prominent members of Canada’s Syrian community.

He also hopes to relieve tension in the community with a public vigil outside the courthouse at 222 Main Street at 9 a.m. Friday. A member of the Syrian-Cana- dian Council of B.C., Alsaleh is organizing the event as a private citizen, but has the support of the council and the Syrian Canadian Foundation.

“If people want to know what the Syrian community thinks, we will be in front of the court ... with a message of unity, hope and humanity,” he said.

He is concerned that his community will be tarred by Ali’s connection to the crime.

“We are people just like any other people,” he said. “We have good individuals and we might have bad individuals.”

Alsaleh was forced to flee his home country after participating in the Syrian Uprising.

“I demonstrated against the dictatorship and was sent to prison where I was tortured,” he said. “I was a medical student, but once I was sent to prison the third time I had to decide whether to stay and hope I would not be arrested again. I didn’t want to risk my life again.”

He left for Lebanon and was finally offered political asylum in Canada.

Alsaleh’s medical training has been sidelined. He now works as a trainer for the federal Refugee Sponsorship Training Program.

“Now I am in the best nation on earth, I have learned the language and I am a very active member of the community,” he said. “The vigil, to me, shows the true Canadian values of acceptance and diversity.”